about the cast - Thecia

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miraculous achievement . You’re right there with the animal . You’re in the lizard’s skin, chomping and crunching . You can almost taste the seaweed .” French cameraman René Heuzey shot the scene . Kirk Wise points to a larger-than-life mid-ocean jubilee involving scores of animals as a highlight of the film that most people will have no other opportunity to witness in a lifetime . “There are hundreds of dolphins herding a huge school of herring into a giant ‘bait ball,’” recounts Kirk Wise . “Then what appears to be about a million sea birds dive-bomb into the ocean . For the grand finale, a gigantic fin whale surfaces and gulps down the entire school . It’s epic in scale, exciting and clearly illustrates the amazing interconnectedness of nature .” For Earle, the most unforgettable scene in the film is rare footage of a female walrus caring for her pup . “When I think of a walrus, I think of tusks and an aggressive, scary creature,” she admits . “That image disappears when you see a mother walrus cuddling her newborn . I don’t know how the cameraman snuggled in there and got those amazing images . It’s a mother creature that weighs much more than a cameraman, with tusks, and bristles everywhere, and an attitude that says this is my baby, you better watch out . But somehow, it was communicated, ‘I’m here because I care .’ “That is the magic of this film,” she adds . “It was made by caring people who want you to care . And you do . You share the spirit of the moment and of the ocean coming through a creature that most think of as a monster . This is a magnificent story, and you’re there .” The question Earle says she hears most often is, “Why should we care about the ocean?” Her response? “Well, would you like to breathe? Would you like to drink water? Do you like to live? The single non-negotiable thing that life requires is water . Ninety-seven percent of Earth’s water is ocean . Every breath you take and every drop of water you drink are connected to the sea . It shapes planetary chemistry, drives the carbon cycle and the weather . “When we damage the ocean, we have undermined our economy, health and security . We’ve undermined the capacity of this planet to take care of us . If the oceans are in trouble, so are we .” According to Earle, human beings have seen less than five percent of the ocean . “We’ve dangled nets and probes and dragged the ocean floor . We’ve looked from high in the sky . We know what the surface looks like in pretty good detail . But ten feet under the ocean, most of it is still unexplored . Go a hundred feet, a thousand feet, ten thousand feet, it’s a never-never land . I have a friend who dives deep looking for fish . He finds as many as 30 new species an hour .” The tragedy, she says, is that we’re losing species at a much faster rate than we’re finding them . “What else is out there that we don’t know about? What we do know is that the ocean is absolutely necessary, vital for our survival and our well-being . Take care of the ocean, you’re taking care of us . Destroy the ocean, harm the ocean, you’re undermining the integrity of the planet itself .” Perrin considers “Oceans” a “wildlife opera—it is a hymn to the sea and the species concealed within it,” he explains . “Each underwater director of photography and each cameraman provided fragments of a score that we orchestrated . We wanted to convey all the majesty of untamed wildlife through the magic of the big screen and create an emotional connection between subject and viewer .” FILMMAKERS TURN TO INNOVATIVE TECHNOLOGY Pioneering Spirit Creates New Tools to Acquire New Imagery “The best way to observe a fish is to become a fish.” ~ Jacques Yves Cousteau Perrin and Cluzaud set out to achieve famed oceanographer Jacques Yves Cousteau’s ideal of “becoming the fish,” going beyond mere spectacle and immersing the audience in a strange new world . The filmmakers’ ambitious demands necessitated finding methods that would allow them to break down the barriers between audience and subject to foster a strong emotional connection . Ironically, their artistic goals would lead them to develop groundbreaking new technologies for use both underwater and at the surface . After consulting with specialists in the animal world, as well as pioneers in aquatic cinematography, Perrin and Cluzaud worked with an armada of experts to develop or modify innovative technologies that achieved the cinematic quality and maneuverability required 16
to realize their vision . Equipping camera operators with rebreathers made it possible to approach even the shyest sea creatures with minimal disruption . Developed for military use, rebreathers recycle exhaled air, eliminating the trail of bubbles left by conventional scuba gear . “One of the other challenges was how to film the animals close up without disturbing their natural behavior,” says Don Hahn, executive producer for Disneynature . “The idea was to go in and leave as small a footprint as possible .” To capture the feeling of swimming alongside a school of tuna, cameras were mounted in “torpedoes” drawn by boats . Known as “Jonas,” the torpedo housed a camera lens and sensor in its nosecone . It could be towed behind a boat by a fiberoptic cable and “swim” along with schools of dolphins or fish traveling at full speed . “The challenge was getting stable high-quality imagery at high speeds, not mediocre footage,” says Perrin . “It took two years of hydrodynamic calculations and trial and error to create .” Thetys, a unique device designed and built by engineers Jacques-Fernand Perrin and Alexander Bügel, allowed the camera operators to maintain a level horizon as the boats carrying them raced through the waves . Filmmakers also used a camera that fixed onto a pole and tied along the vessel’s hull to film lateral traveling shots . In one exhilarating sequence, the camera slides along the water at top speed, in the midst of a pod of leaping spinner dolphins . In addition to the conventional helicopters used for aerial and storm shots, the filmmakers brought in a tiny, remote-controlled helicopter nicknamed “Birdyfly .” Outfitted with a wide-angle lens, Birdyfly was nimble and quiet enough to discreetly film the most skittish whales without alarming them . A marine scooter served the same purpose in underwater settings . A custommade “mid-air/mid-water” machine filmed both above and below the surface, making it ideal for following a seal swimming with its head above water . The filmmakers leveraged the differing strengths of both 35mm film and digital cameras . Film provided more nuanced visuals, but digital storage technology afforded them more time underwater: 48 minutes as opposed to a maximum of six minutes with film . They elected to use digital cameras for the underwater shoots, and had watertight, hydrodynamic boxes custom-built to protect them . Created by the Swiss company Subspace Technology, the housings have now become the standard for underwater photography . External and aerial shots used conventional 35mm film . A soundtrack for the ocean was built layer upon layer, including bird calls, whale songs and the violent thrashing of an ocean storm, as well as underwater sounds . “The more oceanographers research the ocean, the more they understand how much communication is going on,” says Hahn . “That becomes especially true with mammals . We worked with Skywalker Ranch on the sound design to make it as scientifically accurate as possible, so the audience is experiencing what we believe dolphins and killer whales do to communicate with each other .” “Oceans,” which began a grand and improbable dream for its creators, has become a startlingly immediate and intimate reality for audiences . “Jacques Perrin and Jacques Cluzaud have used new technologies like high definition and new camera techniques to zero right in to see what the fish see,” says consultant Sylvia Earle . “They’ve adapted the cutting edge of the cutting edge and made it work . I have worked with technology, with submarines, with cameras and cameramen . It’s a tricky business and these are absolutely the best . I’m just grateful for the talented individuals who have the capacity, the patience and the love to do what it takes to put themselves—and us—into the ocean .” EVOCATIVE SCORE ADDS TO OCEAN’S EMOTIONAL UNDERCURRENT Joe Jonas and Demi Lovato Leave Audiences with an Inspirational Message “Oceans’” musical score was written by award-winning French composer Bruno Coulais, who previously collaborated with Perrin and Cluzaud on the Oscar-nominated 2001 nature film “Winged Migration .” Coulais says he wanted the music to provide an emotional commentary on the astounding action unfolding on screen . “The challenge was to avoid making the music too illustrative . I believe that to make people aware of important causes regarding the environment, it’s essential to reach them emotionally first .” 17
Page 1 and 2: Explore the depths of our planet’
Page 3 and 4: DISNEYNATURE Presents In Associatio
Page 5 and 6: Grips Naturalist Keygrips . . . . .
Page 7 and 8: SHOOTING PERMITS Mexico: The footag
Page 9 and 10: FRENCH GUYANA Ile du Grand Connetab
Page 11 and 12: STABILISED MOUNT THETYS SANDOR WELT
Page 13 and 14: MPAA #45933 © 2009 - GALATÉE FILM
Page 15 and 16: ABOUT THE PRODUCTION ASTONISHING FO
Page 17: ourselves and our own responsibilit
Page 21 and 22: ABOUT THE FILMMAKERS JACQUES PERRIN
Page 23 and 24: announced his plans to significantl

about the cast - Thecia

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